The Reverend Henry Prince began the cult in 1846, in Somerset, with funds from wealthy spinsters after being expelled from the church and also built the Ark of the Covenant church in Clapton, north London.

Prince lived a life of luxury and, in 1856, he dressed in ceremonial robes to deflower 16-year-old virgin Zoe Patterson on a billiard table.

He called the act a Great Manifestation, "the mystic union of flesh and spirit.”

She fell pregnant and he denied that this was his doing, saying instead it was the “work of the devil.”

con the baptist

In a 2006 book, Smyth-Piggott's granddaughter Kate Barlow wrote about her experiences growing up within the cult and detailed orgies involving the members.

Now the London church, sold in 2010, is in the centre of a legal row about whether the proceeds should go to the descendants of the cult leaders.

The 1892 deed said that funds should be used to promote the objectives of the sect but since it no longer exists, Smyth-Piggot’s granddaughters they are entitled to the proceeds.

A statement to the court reads: "All the community members are now long since deceased and gone. The six named are the direct descendants of Beloved and his 'soul bride' ... and are therefore the rightful and only true beneficiaries of the trust."

Sex after a big meal could ­trigger a stroke, or so the Victorians were told

Sex after a big meal could ­trigger a stroke, while blindness, insanity and even death could occur from “over-excitement” during the act.

Unmentionable: The Victorian Lady’s Guide To Sex, Marriage And Manners by US historian Therese Oneill tells us the adage at the time was: “The woman who goes to bed with a man must put off her modesty with her petticoat and put it on again with the same.”